The majority of building toys fall into three categories of full-scale construction: masonary, wood, and steel. The success of Lego as the masonry, Lincoln-Logs as the wood, and Erector-Set as the steel system has influenced similar designs over the years. The above mentioned products and those that fall into similar categories lack a piece that can effectively define a volume of space. Several products and building block inventions have planer pieces that are comprised of interlocking slabs. Typically, the toys have square pieces that are notched so that they can be joined with other identical pieces to form a hollow cube. The following three inventions all have this characteristic: Toy Construction Block U.S. Pat. No. 1,894,061, Toy Construction Element U.S. Pat. No. 2,558,591, and Cuboidal Structure U.S. Pat. No. 3,924,376. The three above-mentioned inventions can effectively form cubes, but in each case, the edge of the finished cube has a smooth interlocking fit that will not allow an additional piece to join on any side. The above mentioned inventions have pieces that can be joined two dimensionally indefinitely to make long square tubes or they can be joined at right angles to form indefinite zig-zag stairs. The invention described herein comprises interconnecting plate elements that allow four way connections giving this invention the optimal construction flexibility for building three dimensionally. This invention enables a toy enthusiast to create simple volumes like cubes that can be embellished on increasingly more sophisticated levels. Furthermore, multi-configured circular/semi-circular disk elements used to interconnect plate elements reduce the complexity of the invention described herein while still enabling the creation of a large variety of structures.
The invention described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,268 to Mayr describes a playtoy building block set having flat plate elements which interlock with pressure inserted ball joint sockets. These pressure engagement type ball and socket interconnecting elements are expensive to manufacture and require the use of semi-elastic plastic plate elements for proper interlocking. The interconnecting elements of the present invention are less complicated to manufacture and can be constructed from a variety of different materials.
This invention relates to a building block toy set made up of flat plates that are dimensioned in a variety of geometric configurations. The plates are flat geometric figures such as squares, triangles and rectangles that are adapted to be joined to each other to form three-dimensional figures. The plates have symmetrically arranged cavities on their edges that are adapted to receive disk like interconnecting elements. These interconnecting elements allow corresponding edges of the plate elements to be united to form three-dimensional figures. The interconnection elements come in a variety of configurations to allow for the creation of a multitude of three-dimensional figures. The plates and interconnecting elements can be made from a variety of materials. The interior of the plate elements can have various cutouts, to represent windows, doors, etc. in a toy building structure.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a building block toy set wherein the basic units are simple, flat, geometrical figures such as squares, rectangles and triangles that are adapted to be joined to each other by disk like interconnecting elements to form three dimensional structures.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a building block toy set of the above type wherein the basic units are provided with symmetrically arranged cavities on their edges which are adapted to receive disk like interconnecting elements.
Other objects of the present invention are to provide a building block toy set bearing the above objects in mind which is of simple construction, inexpensive to manufacture, has a minimum number of parts, is easy to assemble and entertaining to use.